Tax question

[Archive]

Posted By: Bob S

I went back and read my original post in this thread, and I apologize for the poor writing....it was nearly unintelligible. I edited it, in case anyone in the future wants to reference this topic in the archives.

Lastly, and I could be wrong on this...my Lyme has clouded my intellect...but it seems in one post someone said that one does aggregate their profits and losses and, if there is a net profit for that year then the cap gains tax must be paid.

Yet, I think I read in another post that tax must be paid on all transactions resulting in a gain, and no reduction in that gain can be taken from those transactions which resulted in losses.

If everyone isn't too bored already by this thread, could someone please clarify.

BTW, all this is a bit ironic/amusing, and a friend of mine who preparers taxes for mainly lower middle and middle class folks, tells me that 90% of the people want to blatantly cheat on their returns.

For example, he is often asked "How much should I take (or get away with taking) this year for charitable deductions"?

It seems, at least for the middle class, cheating on your taxes is a badge of honor.

It worries me because someone (I think it was DeTouchville), wrote that for a democracy to succeed in the long run, the citizens must willingly and happily pay their taxes, assuming they are assessed "fairly" and used for the "common good"

Of course I guess there is considerable debate as to what constitutes the terms "fairly" and "common good".

Thanks, again everyone.

Bob


PS: Is everyone getting the phrase "returnaddress", in that form, printing at the bottom of all their posts? Just curious. It seems to have just started in the last day or so.